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m 


Canadian  Inatituta  for  Hiatorical  Mieroraproductiona  /  InatHut  Canadian  da  mierora-     'octiona  liiatoriquaa 


1995 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes  /  Notes  technique  et  bibliographiques 


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Covers  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
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Coloured  maps  /  Cartes  g^raphiques  en  couleur 

Coloured  ink  (i.e.  oltier  than  blue  or  btack)  I 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bteue  ou  noire) 

Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations  / 
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1     I      Only  edition  available  / 
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I  I  Blank  leaves  added  during  restorations  may  appear 
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Commentaires  supplementaires: 


Thii  ittm  it  filmed  at  tht  rtduction  ratio  diackad  below/ 

Ct  docwmant  tst  filmi  au  taux  dt  raduction  mdiqui  ci-d«ssou3. 


lOX 


1BX 


7 


22X 


»X 


»x 


Th*  copy  fllmad  hara  hH  Iman  raproducad  thanks 
to  tha  ganarotity  of: 

National  Library  of  Canada 


L'axamplaira  film*  fut  raproduit  griea  t  la 
gintroiiU  da: 

Bibllotheque  natlonale  du  Canada 


Tha  imagaa  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  bait  quality 
poulbia  eonaldaring  tha  eondltlan  and  laglbillty 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  kaaping  with  tha 
filming  contract  tpacificationa. 


Lat  imagat  lulvantai  ont  ttt  raproduitaa  ivac  la 
plus  grand  *oin.  eompta  tanu  da  Is  condition  at 
da  la  nattat*  da  I'aiamplaira  filmt,  at  an 
conformity  avac  laa  conditions  du  eontrat  da 
filmaga. 


Original  eopias  in  printad  papar  covara  ara  tllmad 
baginning  with  tha  front  covar  and  anding  on 
tha  last  paga  with  a  printad  or  lllustratad  impraa- 
sion.  or  tha  back  covar  whan  spproprlata.  AH 
othar  original  copiaa  ara  fllmad  baginning  on  tha 
first  paga  with  a  printad  or  llluatratad  impraa- 
sion.  and  anding  on  tha  last  paga  with  a  printad 
or  llluatratad  impraasion. 


Laa  axamplairas  originaux  dont  la  couvartura  an 
papiar  ast  imprimaa  sont  flimta  an  eommancant 
par  la  pramiar  plat  at  an  tarminant  toit  par  ia 
darnitra  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'imprassion  ou  d'illustratlon.  soit  par  la  sacond 
plat,  salon  la  eaa.  Tous  las  autras  axamplairas 
originaux  sont  filmAa  an  eommoncant  par  la 
pramiira  paga  qui  comporta  una  amprainta 
d'imprassion  ou  d'lllustration  at  an  tarminant  par 
la  darnitit  paga  qui  comporta  una  talia 
amprainta. 


Tha  last  racordad  frama  on  aach  microficha 
shall  conuin  tha  symbol  ^^  (moaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  tha  symbol  V  Imaaning  "END"), 
whichavar  applias. 

Maps,  platas.  cham.  ate.  may  bo  filmsd  at 
diffarant  raduction  ratios.  Thosa  too  larga  to  ba 
antiraly  included  in  ona  axposura  ara  filmod 
baginning  In  tha  uppar  laft  hand  eornor.  laft  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  framas  as 
raqulrad.  Tha  following  diagrama  illustrata  tha 
mathod: 


Un  daa  symbolas  suivants  ipparaitra  sur  la 
darniira  imaga  da  chaqua  microficha.  salon  la 
cas:  la  symbola  — »  signifia  "A  SUIVRE".  la 
symbols  V  signifia  "FIN". 

Las  cartaa,  planchas.  tablaaux.  ate. .  pauvant  itia 
fiimOs  i  das  taux  da  rOductlon  difftranis. 
Lorsqua  la  documant  ast  trop  grand  pour  itra 
raproduit  an  un  saul  clichO.  il  ast  fiimO  i  partir 
da  I'angia  supArlaur  gaucha.  da  gaucha  1  droita, 
at  da  haut  an  bas.  an  pranant  ia  nombra 
d'imagaa  nAcassaira.  Las  diagrammas  suivants 
illustrant  la  mOthoda. 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

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LABOUR  AM>  CAPITAL 


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LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


OTHER  BOOKS  BY  OOLDWIN  SMITH 


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LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 

A  LETTER  TO  A   LABOUR  FRIEND 


BV 


GOLDWIN  SMITH,  D.C.L. 


TStftt  ^irA 
THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  4  CO,  LTD. 

1907 

All  njf*<i  ruimi 


1 


COWMGMT,   1907, 

Bv  GOLDWIN  SMITH. 
S«up«iidelectrolyp«d    FubUtked  Januaiy,  190;. 


Hnirait  Ihnt 

J.  8.  CaBhlig  *  Co.  —  Btmriek  ti  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  Ifus.,  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

A  LETTER  which  appeared  a  short  time  ago 
under  the  title  of  "  Progress  or  Revolution  ? " 
is  here  amplified,  partly  in  view  of  some  sub- 
sequent events. 


1 


'ABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 

My  Labour  Friend, 

All  round  the  industrial  horizon  there  are 
signs  of  continuing  storm ;  and  with  industrial 
strife  a  good  deal  of  social  bitterness  and  class 
hatred  is  too  evidently  mingled.  The  outlook 
13  threatening,  not  to  industry  and  commerce 
only,  but  to  the  general  relations  between 
classes  and  even  to  the  unity  of  the  common- 
wealth. 

Old  age  is  proverbially  conservative,  though 
its  interest  in  the  present  state  of  things  is 
reduced.  But  I  do  not  think  my  opinions  or 
feelings  have  been  greatly  changed  since,  in 
England,  I  defended  with  my  pen  the  Unions 
under  the  fire  drawn  on  them  by  the  Sheffield 
outrages  and  stood  on  the  platform  of  the 
National  Agricultural  Union  by  the  side  of 
Joseph  Arch.  If  a  good  Labour  candidate 
has  presented  himself  at  an  election,  I  have 
voted  for  him,  ever  mindful  of  Pym's  saying: 


'  LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 

"The  best  form  of  government  is  that  which 
do  h  actuate  and  inspire  every  part  and  mem 
ber  of  a  state  to  the  common  good."  wl 
Lou,s  B  anc.  when  he  was  in  exile  I  cultiv^^^d 
-dsh:p  and  listened  with  sympathy.  thuS 
cacy  of  National  Workshops.     Were  my  old 

^17';.f°^"°^>-'^e.whomIlosttheoth^ 
day.  .Ill  alive,  to  his  testimony  also  I  might 

I  address  you  as  my  "Labour"  Friend,  but 

hono      r,    "  *''*  ''''    *'«^-   "°-   happily 
honoured,  almost  privileged,  belongs  as  much 
to  those  who  labour  with  the  biain^asTo  Zse 
who  labour  with  the  hand.     LaboureJ^^' 
the  brain,  as  well  as  labourers  with  the  hand, 
have  their  sufferings  and  their  grievances  fee^ 
weannes,  would   like  shorter  hours,  and  are 
hable  to  being  underpaid.      Of  the  fo  emo 

mong  the  intellectual  benefactors  of  manZd 

not  a  few.  m  fact,  have  been  greatly  underpaid. 

There  is  no  denying  that  the  wage-ea^ir 

system  applied  to  large  works  and  grLb'I: 
of  workmen  has  brought  its  evils  and  its  per^s 
So  has  almost  eveiy  great  economical  chang 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL  3 

departmental  stores,  for  instance ;  which,  while 
they  retrench  the  expense  of  distribution  by 
eliminating  the  middleman,  kill  the  small 
store.  In  my  boyhood  I  saw  the  sky  in  Eng- 
land red  with  the  burning  of  threshing  ma- 
chines which,  in  the  crisis  of  transition,  were 
taking  the  bread  from  the  threshers.  The  in- 
terest of  the  village  weaver  in  his  own  work  is 
lost.  The  sharp  separation,  industrial  and 
social,  between  employer  and  employed  is 
another  evil  attendant  upon  the  introduction 
of  production  on  the  largj  scale. 

It  would  be  hard  to  require  the  employer  to 
live  in  the  smoke  and  din  of  his  works.  But 
the  complete  separation  of  dwellings  and  the 
absence  of  personal  intercourse  between  the 
owner  of  the  works  and  the  men  have  probably 
contributed  to  estrangement.  The  factory- 
hand  takes  his  Sunday  stroll  to  the  suburbs 
and  -ees,  perhaps  not  with  the  most  pleasant 
feeling,  the  mansion  of  the  wealth  which  Karl 
Marx,  or  a  disciple  of  Karl  Marx,  has  told  him 
ought  to  be  his  own.  Often  the  master  is  a 
corporation.  There  is  no  help  for  this,  but 
perhaps  something  might  be  done  to  soften 


4  LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 

personal   relations.      Artisan    villages    under 

antp    ,r  H      "'"'^'°"'  ^"^^  ^'  S^'^-- 
cesses     S.r-°  "'  "'"  *°  ^^^^  ^-"  -- 

for  Tt  that     wt  ""u  "°'  '■  ^'^"S'^  '  "^^^  ^« 
for   t.  that  all  that  benevolence  could  do  was 

done     The  people  feel  that  they  are  not  free 
Would  ,t  be  possible  that  each  trade  should 

have  a  stand  „g  conference  with  a  Joint  repr. 
sentafon  of  the  two  orders  for  the  settlen^ent  of 
ques  K,ns  con,.on  to  the  interests  of  boh 
Would  this,  besides  its  direct  purpose,  serve  to 

soften  the  general  relation  and  reader  negotia- 
tion on  pomts  of  difference  less  bitter?  I 
have  been  told  that  there  is  i„  England  an 
example  of  something  of  this  kind 

Besides  the  natural  forces,  there  are  two 
^acto.m  production:  Capital  and  Labour 
AH  that  IS  not  labour  i.  capital.  The  la- 
Ws  outfit  is  capita,.  The  fruits  of  mony 
aid  out  in  preparation  for  any  skilled  calling" 

e  t  tied  ir!        '  '"'"^'°"'  '''  -P'^^^  -d 
entitled  to  share    under   that    head.     Capital 

been    erected    into  an    industrial    tyrant   the 
mortal  enemy  of  labour.     If  capita/co  Jd  be 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL  5 

killed  or  scared  away,  in  what  condition  can 

we  suppose  that  labour  would  be  left?     Karl 

Marx,  deriving   his   principle    from    William 

Thompson,  maintains  that  all  production  is  the 

fruit  and  the  rightful  property  of  labour  alone. 

Let  him  put  labour  without  any  capital,  with 

nothing  but  its  bare  sinews,  on  the  most  fertile 

land  or  amidst  the  richest  mines  and  see  what 

will  be  the  result.     The  union  of  the  two 

elements  in  production  is  as  necessary  as  that 

of  oxygen  and  hydrogen  in  the  composition  of 

w.ter.     Without  capital  we  should  be  living  in 

caves  and  grubbing  up  roots  with   our  nails. 

Such  in  fact  was  the  state  of  primitive  man. 

The  man  who  first  stored  up  some  roots  was 

the   first  capitalist;    and  the  man    who   first 

loaned  some  of  his  roots  on  condition  of  future 

repayment  with  addition  was  the  first  investor. 

Labour,  we  are  told,  adds  the  value  to  the 

raw  material.     Undoubtedly   it  does,   and    it 

receives  the  price  of  the  value  added,  in   the 

form  of  wages,  which   are  distributed  by  the 

equitable  hand  of  Nature  along  the  whole  line 

of  labourers,  from  the  miner,  say,  to  the  artisan 

of  the  metal  works,  and  from  the  grower  of 


*  t^BOUR  AND  CAPITAL 

cotton  to  the  spinner;  not  excluding  in  either 
case  the  master  by  whom  the  works  haveten 
^t  up  a„d  by  whose  labour  as  manager  and  the 
d.stnbuter  of  their  products  they  are'ca  J  o„ 

.nH  /  "T°'  ^  ™^S'"^d  *h^t  this  vast 
and  yaned  edifice  of  civilization  and  this  mu- 
tud,„ous  march  of  human  progress  are  en- 
t^ly  the  work  of  the  manual  labourer  and 
that  the  manual  labourer  is  entitled  to  the 

ilt?^r"^r"^'°"^^-^°--i 

It  in  ??  ?""'  '''°"'"  ''''"''''  ^---? 

allv  that  I  ""''''  ^"'  ^^^°"^  g^"^- 

ally  that  the  present  war  has  broken  out,  but 

between  the  capitalist  employing  a  body  o 

workmen       f'"'""'"^'  *°  ^^S-^^*--  o^ 
workmen  m  factories  or  mines.     The  agitation 

of  rural  labour  in  England  under  Josepf  aZ 
-med  to  subside  when  its  victoi^h^adtl 

Thf  capitalist,  besides  the  money  which  he 
-ks,  co„tHbutes  labour  of  an   indispens'bl 
kmd  as  organizer  and  director,  and  is  entitled 
to  payment  for  that  labour  as  well  as  to  the 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL  j 

interest  on  his  capital.  Labour  is  entitled  to 
such  wage  as  the  capitalist,  allowing  for  his 
risk,  can  afford  to  give.  A  strike  is  a  legiti- 
mate engine  for  enforcing  the  concession  of 
such  a  wage,  though  not  for  any  exaction 
beyond.  Further  exaction  must  break  the 
trade.  The  capital  which  the  employer  puts 
into  the  trade,  you  will  observe,  is  not  a  thing 
alien  to  labour,  but  its  accumulated  fruit. 

It  has  been  questioned  whether,  if  the  em- 
ployer increases  his  profit  by  adding  to  his 
risk  of  capital  or  by  an  improved  policy,  the 
fruit  of  his  own  brain,  the  wage-earner  becomes 
thereby  entitled  to  an  increase  of  wages,  sup- 
posing his  part  in  the  production  to  remain 
the  same.  The  question  is  rather  subtle,  but 
the  plain  answer  is  that  in  this  as  in  all  cases 
wise  policy  as  well  as  good  feeling  will  lead 
the  employer  to  give  his  men  as  much  interest 
as  possible  in  the  prosperity  of  the  concern. 
Want  of  inducement  to  improving  effort  on 
the  part  of  the  workman  in  the  shape  of  a 
tangible  reward  is,  it  must  be  owned,  a  weak- 
ness in  the  factory  system.  He  would  be  a 
great  benefactor  who  could  find  the  cure. 


■  LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 

The  labour  contributed  by  the  employer  in 
the  shape  of  direction  is  indispensable.    Lack 
of  direction  appears  to  have  been  the  cause  of 
the  ill-success  of  codperative  works  fully  as 
much  as  the  lack  of  funds  for  their  support 
while  they  are  waiting  on  the  market.     Nor 
does  the  admission  of  the  men  to  the  councils 
of  the  firm  appear  to  have  been  generally  a 
success,  as  it  was  hoped  it  would.     Besides 
lack  of  identity  of  interest,  there  seems  to  be 
too  great  a  disparity  of  acquaintance  with  the 
calls  of  the  market  and  the  policy  which  they 
render  necessary  to  the  firm. 

Apparently  it  can  only  be  said  in  a  general 
way  that  any  manifestation  of  the  employer's 
confidence  in  the  men,  anything  that  can  help 
to  create  a  sense  of  partnership,  anything  that 
can  make  the  men  feel  more  like  human  agents 
of  production,  less  like  hammers  and  spindles 
could  not  fail  to  do  some  good. 

It  is  urged  that  capital  is  a  monopoly  and  as 
such  controls  wages.  I  fail  to  see  how  capital 
IS  a  monopoly  as  a  general  fact,  or  otherwise 
than  as  skilled  labour  may  be  called  a  mo- 
nopoly.   At  all  events  I  do  not  understand  how 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL  g 

the  argument  bears  on  the  question  of  wages. 
Comers,  which  are  seldom  successful,  can  hardly 
affect  that  question.  We  do  not  hear  th.-t  the 
wages  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company  are  particu- 
larly low.  The  larger  the  business  is,  the  more 
moderate  will  be  the  rate  of  profit  required  to  pay 
the  capitalist  his  due.  The  higher  consequently 
will  be  the  wage  which  he  can  afford  to  give. 

There  is  nothing  strange  or  invidious   in 
treating  labour  as  a  commodity,  the  value,  and 
consequently   the   wages,   of  which  must  be 
regulated   by  the  market.     This   is  the  case 
with  all  labour,  that  of  the  statesman,  the  man 
of  science,  the  writer,  as  well  as  that  of  the 
artisan;  though   the    statesman,  the    man    of 
science,  and  the  writer  may  draw  their  wages 
in  a  different  form.     The  right  of  an  artisan  to 
a  living  wage  cannot  be  asserted  unless  value 
in  labour  can  be  given  for  the  wage.     Nor  can 
the  right  to  employment  be  asserted  when  no 
employment  offers,  in  the  case  of   an  artisan 
any  more  than  in  that  of  a  lawyer  for  whom 
there  are  no  clients  or  a  physician  for  whom 
there  are  no  patients.    Another  market  must 
be  sought.     This  is  the  common  lot 


10 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


The  capitalist,  It  is  important  to  observe, 
though  the  organizer,  director,  and  paymaster, 
is  not  the  real  employer.  The  real  employer 
is  the  purchaser  of  the  goods,  who  cannot  be 
forced  '  v  any  strike  or  pressure  to  give  more 
for  the  goods  than  he  chooses  and  can  afford. 
Carried  beyond  a  certain  point,  therefore,  pres- 
sure for  an  increased  wage  must  either  fail  or 
break  the  trade. 

That  capital  can  be  rapacious  and  unjust  to 
those  in  its  employ  is  too  certain.  It  can  be 
worse  than  rapacious  and  unjust,  it  can  be  ter- 
ribly heartless  and  cruel.  Proof  of  this  may 
be  read  in  the  reports  recording  the  treatment 
of  children  in  factories  and  of  men,  women, 
and  children  in  coal  mines  which  horrified  the 
British  people  and  compelled  the  interference 
of  the  British  Parliament.  Men  who  were 
guilty  of  such  things  may  have  been  humane 
and  even  amiable  in  other  walks  of  life.  The 
lust  of  gain  hardened  their  hearts.  One  of  the 
great  mine-owners  was  a  wealthy  peer  who  de- 
served to  be  sent  to  work  in  his  own  mines. 
For  self-defence  on  the  part  of  the  working- 
man   there   wai   in  former  days  bitter   need. 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


II 


And  there  is  need  still.  In  marking  the  errors 
and  successes  oi  the  industrial  insurrection,  we 
will  not  forget  the  injustice  of  the  previous 
state  of  things.  Nor  will  we  forget  that  the 
Protectionist  manufacturer  is  as  truly  a  mo- 
nopolist in  his  way  as  the  artisan  who  tries  to 
confine  the  right  of  labour  to  his  union. 

The  masters  are  naturally  combined  in  the 
effort  to  keep  down  wages.  In  England  the 
me*'  were  formerly  forbidden  by  law  to  com- 
bine. They  had  to  negotiate  singly  with  the 
employer,  who  had  breakfasted,  while  they  had 
not  Seven  Devonshire  labourers  were  sen- 
tenced to  transportation  for  administering  a 
combination  oath.  Liberalism  coming  into 
power  in  England  repealed  the  Combination 
Laws.  The  Unions  were  formed  and  took 
the  field  for  the  rights  of  the  employed.  Man- 
ufacturing districts,  where  the  employed  were 
gathered  in  masses,  were  the  chief  field  of 
Unionist  effort.  But  the  National  Agricul- 
tural Union  was  formed  and  wisely  guided 
to  a  peaceful  victory  by  a  leader  whose  prac- 
tical motto  was,  as  it  ought  to  be  that  of  us 
all,  Peace  with  Justice. 


13 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


Unquestionably  a  large  measure  of  justice 
in  the  way  of  rectification  of  wages  has  been 
won  by  Unionist  effort,  though  at  a  terrible 
sacrifice  of  peace  as  well  as  of  money  and  of 
the  products  of  labour.  Yet  a  dispute  about 
wages  still  threatens  this  continent  with  a  depri- 
vation of  coal  which  would  stop  the  wheels 
of  manufacturing  industry,  besides  bringing 
suffering  into  our  homes. 

Organizations  formed  for  an  aggressive  pur- 
pose are  naturally  apt  to  fall  into  the  hands 
of  the  most  aggressive  and  least  responsible 
section.  There  would  be  fewer  strikes  if  the 
votes  were  always  taken  by  ballot  and  every 
married  man  had  two.  There  is  also  a  danger 
of  falling  into  the  hands  of  aspiring  leaders 
whose  field  is  industrial  war.  This  danger 
increases  with  the  extension  of  the  field,  and 
still  further  when  to  leadership  in  industrial 
war  is  added  leadership  in  political  agitation, 
with  the  importance  which  it  bestows  and  the 
prospects  of  advancement  which  it  opens. 

Power  newly  won  and  flushed  with  victory 
seldom  stops  exactly  at  the  line  of  right.  From 
enabling  the  wage-owner  to  treat  on  fair  terms 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


13 


with  the  employer,  Unions  seem  now  to  be 
going  on  to  create  for  themselves  a  monopoly 
of  labour.  To  this  the  community  never  has 
submitted  and  never  can  submit.  Freedom  of 
labour  is  the  rightful  inheritance  of  every  man 
and  the  vital  interest  of  all.  The  defensive 
forces  of  the  community  are  slow  in  gathering 
to  resist  usurpation.  But  they  will  gather  at 
last,  and  when  they  do  the  end  is  certain.  I 
see  it  announced,  with  apparent  complacency, 
that  a  man  has  lost  his  trade  and  his  liveli- 
hood, with  that  of  his  family,  if  he  has  one, 
because  he  sold  goods  without  the  Union  label. 
What  more  oppressive  could  the  master  class 
in  the  time  of  its  tyranny  have  done?  A 
Union  is  a  self-constituted  power.  If  a  man 
could  be  ruined  by  the  edict  of  self-constituted 
power  for  doing  that  which  the  law  sanctions 
him  in  doing,  where  would  commercial  liberty 
or  the  general  principle  of  liberty  be?  No 
community  can  permit  a  self-constituted  au- 
thority to  arrogate  to  itself  such  powers  beyond 
the  law. 

That  age   makes  us    conservative,   I    have 
owned.     But  apart  from  conservatism  or  lib- 


'4 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


i; 
i  I  ' 


eralism,  there  are  principles  of  natural  and  civil 
right  to  which  I  should  seem  to  myself  utterly 
disloyal  if  I  failed  heartily  to  deprecate  the  use 
of  violence,  insult,  persecution,  or  annoyance  of 
any  kind  for  the  purpose  of  deterring  any  man 
from  making  his  bread  and  that  of  his  family 
by  such  honest  calling  as  he  may  think  fit,  and 
under  any  employer  that  he  may  choose,  or 
from  making  for  that  purpose  a  perfectly  free 
use  of  all  his  powers.  Persuasion  is,  in  all  its 
forms,  of  course,  open  to  the  promoters  of 
Unionism,  and  it  surely  has  a  good  text  in  the 
advantages  of  union,  which  are  by  no  means 
confined  to  the  mere  question  of  wages,  but 
may  extend  to  all  the  common  rights  and 
general  relations  of  the  members.  Refusal  to 
work  with  non-union  men  is  undeniably  lawful, 
though  far  from  kind.  One  man's  labour  is 
worth  more  than  that  of  another  in  the  same 
craft,  and  every  man  has  a  right  to  work  for 
the  wage,  be  it  high  or  low,  that  his  labour  is 
worth.  To  fix  a  rate  of  wage  and  say  that  no 
man  shall  be  allowed  to  work  for  less,  thus 
debarring  from  work  all  the  value  of  those  whose 
labour  is  not  up  to  that  arbitrary  mark,  would 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL  ij 

manifestly  be  unreasonable  and  unjust.  Are 
any  of  the  "unemployed"  who  are  crying  in 
British  streets  for  work  and  bread  the  victims 
of  such  arbitrary  regulations?  Might  it  be 
practicable  for  the  Unions  to  keep  themselves 
clear  of  any  wrong-doing  of  this  kind  by  grad- 
ing labour  ? 

Society  is  revolting  against  trusts  and  com- 
bines. Use  of  political  power  to  enforce  a 
great  monopoly  of  labour  is  surely  what  it 
cannot  be  expected  to  bear. 

Strikers  should  remember  that  they  are  con- 
sumers as  well  as  producers,  buyers  as  well 
as  makers.  A  striker  in  exacting  increased 
wages  makes  the  article  dear  to  his  own  class 
as  well  as  to  the  other  classes.  He  may  raise 
the  price  of  his  own  product  to  himself.  The 
long  strike  of  the  building  trade  in  Toronto 
seems  to  have  raised  the  price  of  artisan 
dwellings. 

Labour,  if  it  is  tempted  to  be  unmeasured  in 
its  demands,  will  do  well  to  bear  it  in  mind 
that  formidable  competition  may  be  coming  on 
the  scene.  In  China  there  is  a  highly  indus- 
trial   population    reckoned    at    four    hundred 


i6 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


I  ', 


millions  to  which  these  troubles  apparently  are 
unknown,  whose  labour  is  steady  and  reliable. 
The  influence  may  not  be  directly  felt,  though 
China  and  Japan  are  gaining  a  footing  on  the 
western  coast  of  America.  But  it  is  pretty 
sure  to  work  round.  Besides,  capital  has  wings. 
Nor  will  mechanical  invention  sleep. 

Desire  of  shorter  hours  of  work  is  natural  on 
the  part  of  the  artisan  and  would  not  be  less 
natural  in  other  callings,  which  also  feel  fa- 
tigue. Nor  is  it  at  all  unlikely  that  in  callings 
which  tax  the  strength,  the  work  of  eight  hours 
may  be  worth  as  much  as  that  of  ten.  Im- 
provement in  this  line  has  been  already  made. 
Every  man  may  shorten  his  hours  of  work  if 
he  thinks  fit ;  but  no  man  can  expect  or  in  the 
end  will  have  power  to  draw  pay  for  work 
which  is  not  done.  In  Ir.nds  where  socialism 
prevails  Unions  seem  inclined  to  vote  them- 
selves more  and  more  freedom  from  work  and 
leisure  for  sport  at  the  expense  of  what  is  called 
"the  State";  that  is  practically  the  tax-payer 
or  the  class  of  tax-payers  which  has  most 
money  and  fewest  votes.  It  is  impossible  that 
to  progress  in  this  direction  there  should  not 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


17 


be  an  end.  The  over-taxed  class  will  disap- 
pear. That  if  less  work  is  done,  there  will  be 
less  in  the  aggregate  to  be  sold  and  to  pay 
wages,  needs  no  showing. 

The  State  is  constantly  invoked  as  a  sort  of 
Supreme  Being  with  paternal  duties  and  a  fund 
of  its  own  for  their  fulfilment,  while  in  reality 
J:  is  either  a  mere  abstraction  or  nothing  but 
the  government  of  the  day,  without  any  fund 
for  its  paternal  bounty  but  that  which  it  draws 
by  taxation  from  the  community  and  on  which 
no  class  can  have  a  special  claim. 

We  were  told  to  look  for  the  cure  of  indus- 
trial war  and  the  end  of  strikes  in  judicial 
arbitration.  The  result  appears  to  have  been 
disappointing.  It  seems  impossible  tor  a  court 
to  forecast  the  changes  of  the  market  on  which 
the  value  of  labour  and  the  just  rate  of  pay- 
ment for  it  must  depend.  While  the  market  is 
rising  and  the  court  h  s  only  to  register  the 
fair  demand  for  a  proportionate  rise  in  wages, 
to  which  the  employer  readily  consents,  all  goes 
well.  But  when  a  fall  in  the  market  calls  for  a 
reduction  of  wages,  trouble,  it  would  seem,  is 
sure  to  begin.      Can   any  court  by  its  award 


IV 


i8 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


ri'i' ' 


compel  the  employer  to  carry  on  business  at  a 
loss,  or  the  artisan  to  go  on  working  for  less 
wages  than  he  could  get  elsewhere  ?  Has  there 
been  any  clear  case  of  practical  enforcement  of 
such  an  award  t  Mediation  may,  of  course,  be 
useful  in  bringing  disputants  together  and 
inducing  reflection  on  both  sides.  The  famous 
agreement  between  the  coal-owners  and  the 
men  appears  not  to  have  been  a  case  of  arbitra- 
tion, properly  speaking,  but  of  mediation,  though 
brought  about  and  morally  enforced  by  public 
opinion.  It  was  not  the  award  of  a  court  of 
law. 

There  has  seemed  to  me  sometimes  to  be  a 
needless  air  of  peremptoriness  in  the  demands 
for  increase  of  wages  or  other  terms,  and 
generally  a  needless  air  of  mistrust  and  hostility 
toward  employers  which  must  enhance  the 
difficulty  of  concession.  The  best  of  tempers 
can  hardly  fail  to  be  tried  by  the  intrusion  of 
a  walking  delegate.  Why  aggravate  by  dis- 
courtesy the  perils  of  the  industrial  situation  ? 
Capital  and  Labour  must  settle  down  in  har- 
mony at  last,  or  both  must  be  ruined. 

Earnestly  to  be  deprecated  is    the  habit  of 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


»9 


giving  the  question  of  employer  and  employed 
the  aspect  of  a  war  between  classes  and  repre- 
senting the  artisan  as  "  a  slave  "  ground  down 
by  the  tyranny  of  the  class  above  him.  No 
one  in  his  cooler  moments  can  believe  that  a 
man  who  is  perfectly  at  liberty  to  dispose  of 
his  own  labour  and  has  full  political  rights  is 
a  slave. 

Progress  surely  there  has  been,  and  its  pace 
has  been  greatly  quickened  during  the  last  three 
generations,  notably  in  what  concerns  the  posi- 
tion and  welfare  of  the  wage-earning  class. 
Wages  have  risen,  while  improvements  in  pro- 
duction and  increased  facilities  of  traffic  have 
added  greatly  to  their  purchasing  range  and 
power.  Education  has  been  made  free  to  the 
people  in  England  and  elsewhere.  Class  legis- 
lation, such  as  the  Combination  Law,  has  been 
swept  away ;  with  it  has  gone  the  class  iniquity 
of  the  old  penal  code.  Factory  laws,  mining 
laws,  and  other  laws  for  the  protection  of  the 
labourer's  life,  health,  and  interest,  have  been 
passed.  Philanthropy  has  been  active  in  pro- 
viding means  of  health  and  enjoyment,  such 
as  public  parks,  and  the  facilities  for  innocent 


30 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


pleasure  have  largely  increased.  The  political 
franchise  has  been  extended  to  the  artisan,  who 
is  no  longer  a  ward  of  the  State,  suing  to  it  for 
paternal  care  and  protection,  but  is  a  part  of 
the  State  himself,  "Labour"  has  become  a 
title  of  distinction.  Unionism  has  had  its  share 
in  this,  but  .o  assuredly  have  good  feeling 
and  the  sense  of  duty  in  other  quarters. 

Greater  way  would  have  been  made  but  for 
wars  and  protective  tariffs,  of  neither  of  which 
can  the  artisan  say  that  he  has  himself  been 
entireless  guiltless.  Artisans  not  a  few  in  Eng- 
land voted  for  the  Boer  War;  and  the  Alien 
Labour  Laws  and  the  Manufacturing  Clause  of 
the  American  Copyright  Act  are  due  to  the 
pressure  of  the  same  class. 

The  existence  of  misery  on  a  terrible  scale 
cannot  be  denied,  and  must  touch  the  heart  of 
any  man  who  has  studied  the  history  of  his 
ind.  We  can  only  trust  that  this  is  not  the 
end.  But  even  as  things  are,  there  seems 
reason  to  hope  th-\t  the  inequality  of  happiness 
is  not  nearly  so  great  as  the  inequality  of 
wealth.  Wealth  cannot  command  health, 
peace    of    mind,    or    domestic    affection.     A 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


31 


mechanic  skilled  in  his  work  and  taking 
pride  in  his  skill,  earning  good  wages  and  own- 
ing his  home,  with  a  loving  family  round  him, 
is,  we  may  fairly  hope,  a  happy  man ;  not  less 
happy  perhaps  than  the  owner  of  millions. 

In  estimating  the  rate  of  progress,  we  have 
to  allow  for  an  immense,  in  some  cases  reck- 
less, increase  of  population,  as  well  as  for  the 
retarding  influence  of  human  faults  and  vices 
which  have  not  been  confined  to  the  moneyed 
class. 

The  author  of  "Progress  and  Poverty" 
absumes  that  poverty  has  increased  with  pro- 
gress. He  wrote  in  the  country  in  which  the 
progr-;ss  has  been  the  greatest  and  the  poverty 
least. 

Popular  education,  also,  it  must  be  admitted, 
has  increased  sensibility  to  social  disadvantage 
and  generated  dista^vC  for  manual  labour. 
Distaste  for  manual  labour  is  becoming  dan- 
gerous. But  th'"-  is  the  attendant  shadow  of 
what  all  the  world  counts  a  blessing  and  a 
gain. 

It  might  probably  be  said  that  the  envy 
naturally  kindled  in  the  poorer  orders  by  the 


33 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


nearer  view  of  the  enjoyment  of  wealth  given 
them  through  the  increase  of  their  intelligence 
and  information  is  an  ingredient  in  the  present 
discontent.  The  perception  of  the  evil  may  be 
clearer  and  keener,  yet  the  grievance  itself  may 
be,  and  surely  is,  in  this  case,  less. 

It  ill  becomes  those  who  are  living  in  the 
enjoyment  of  opulence  to  preach  prudence  and 
self-denial  to  those  who  are  not.    The  grinding 
monotony    of   factory    work,  making    of    the 
worker  a  mere  part  of  the  machine,  with  its 
unlovely  surroundings,   inevitably  disposes  to 
expenditure  on  sensual  pleasures  and  excite- 
ments.    But  there  is  little  doubt  that  wages 
might  be  practically  increased  in  many  cases 
by  thrift  and  judicious  expenditure  on  the  part 
of  the  earner.     When  we  are  told  of  miners 
paying  extravagant  prices  for  rare  viands,  or 
of  a  multitude  of  artisans  going  hundreds  of 
miles  to  see  a  football  match,  we  allow  for  the 
natural  craving  on    he  part  of  men  bound  to  a 
rough  trade  like  mining  for  the  gratification  of 
the  appetite,  and  of  men  bound  to  a  dull  and 
monotonous  trade  for  excitement.     But  neither 
class  is  laying  up  ease  and  comfort  for  old  age. 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


33 


Unionism  is  not  Socialism.  The  two  things 
are  perfectly  distinct,  though  apt  to  be  found 
together  as  elements  of  the  general  ferment 
and  alike  significant  of  the  growing  disposition 
of  the  wage-earner  to  use  his  political  power 
for  the  purpose  of  transferring  wealth  from  the 
hands  of  the  present  possessors  into  his  own. 
Socialism  if  it  prevailed  would  put  an  end  to 
Trade  Unions. 

Socialism  is  a  natural  growth;  and,  so  far 
as  it  has  abstained  from  revolutionary  methods 
or  incitements  to  violence,  may  have  been  not 
only  deserving  of  sympathy  but  useful  as  a 
stimulant  to  us  all.  There  has  been  a  suc- 
cession of  Utopian  visions  from  Plato  to  Sir 
Thomas  More,  and  from  Sir  Thomas  More 
to  Bulwer  and  Bellamy.  We  have  had  social- 
istic experiments.  Those  set  on  foot  or  origi- 
nated by  the  excellent  Robert  Owen  failed 
mainly,  it  seems,  through  the  disintegrating 
action  of  the  family  on  the  community.  Celi- 
bate communities  under  a  religious  dictator, 
such  as  the  Oneida  Community,  had  a  transi- 
tory success  in  their  pe-uliar  way,  but  taught 
us  nothing.     There  has  been  a  variety  of  so- 


S4  LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 

cialist  organizations :  Saint-Simonians,  Fourier- 
ists,  Icarians,  differing  from  each  other  in  their 
plans  of  universal  regeneration,  holding  to- 
gether in  themselves  for  the  destructive  pro- 
cess, but  when  it  came  to  the  constructive, 
splitting  and  passing  away.  The  last-born  of 
the  series.  Nihilism,  by  its  name  proclaims 
itself  destructive  and  has  been  presenting  im- 
pressive proof  of  its  character. 

This  is  manifestly  an  imperfect  world,  recog- 
nizable as  the  work  of  omnipotent  beneficence 
only  in  so  far  as  it  may  be  tending  toward  a 
goal.  No  man  not  devoid  of  sensibility  can 
have  failed  to  reflect  with  sadness  on  the  ter- 
rible inequalities  of  the  human  lot.  Why  is 
the  life  of  one  man  a  life  of  opulence,  ease, 
and  refinement,  that  of  another  man  Sv  sadly 
the  reverse?  Why  are  the  gifts  of  nature, 
health,  strength,  brain  power,  good  looks,  long 
life,  so  unequally  bestowed?  Why  is  one 
man  born  in  a  civilized  and  happy,  another  in 
a  barbarous  and  unhappy  age?  There  is  not 
only  "something,"  but  a  good  deal,  in  the 
world  that  is  "amiss,"  and  may,  and  we  hope 
will,  be  "unriddled  by  and  by."     Meantime, 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL  aj 

the  cottage,  so  long  as  it  has  bread  and  domes- 
tic  affection,  might,  if  it  could  look  into  the 
mansion,  see  that  which  would  help  to  recon- 
cile  it  to  its  lot. 

The  sharp  line  between  rich  and  poor,  on 
which    so    much    revolutionary    rhetoric    is 
founded,  has  at  our  stage  of  civilization  no 
real  existence.     Many  of  the  people  classed  as 
"rich"  by  the  spokesmen  of  labour,  because 
they  are  not  mechanics,  are,  considering  the 
necessities  of  their  social  position,  in   reality 
poor.     The  municipal  demagogue  who  prom- 
ises to  take  the  taxes  off  the  poor  and   -^ut 
them  on  the  rich  is  undertaking  to  Ly  fresh 
burdens   on    many  people   who    are   already 
struggling  with  want.     The  millionnaire  feels 
the  increase  of  a  municipal  tax  comparatively 
little.    A  professional  man  or  tradesman  strug- 
gling with  difficulties  feels  it  much,  and  it  is 
at  the  special  expense  of  these  people  that  the 
demagogue's  bribe  is  paid. 

By  this  impression  about  classes  labour 
organizations  are  led  to  put  themselves  out- 
side the  community  and  avow  that  they  hold 
and  will  use  their  political  powers  in  the  inter- 


26 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


\ 


est  of  their  own  class  alone.  Thus  to  put 
ourselves  out  of  the  community  is  to  make 
ourselves  political  and  social  outlaws.  What 
hope  is  there  of  general  progress  but  in  com- 
mon effort  for  the  common  weal  ? 

That  a  monopoly  of  all   wealth  has   been 
usurped   by  a  class  which  may  rightfully  be 
despoiled  of  its  prey,  once  more  is  an  angry 
dream.     Social  history  tells  of  no  such  usurpa- 
tion ;  though  aristocracies  created  by  conquest 
have  for  the  time  partitioned  the  land.     The 
present  state  of  things,  with  all  its  inequalities, 
deplorable  as  they  sometimes  are,  has  been 
evolved  by  a  gradual  process  in  which  varieties 
of  opportunity  and  capacity  have  played  the 
greatest  part.     In  industrial   and  commercial 
communities  there  is,  in  fact,  no  such  sharp 
division  of  classes  as  to  give  one  class  a  pre- 
tence for  making  war  upon  the  other.     Of  the 
millionnaires  who  are  the  special  objects  of 
hostilitj'  it  would  probably  be  found  that  far  the 
greater  number,  in  the  United  States  at  least, 
had  sprung  from  that  which  fancies  itself  the 
despoiled  and  down-trodden  class. 

For  opposition   on   the   part  of  the  class 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL  27 

which  he  hates  and  seeks  ro  despc'l,  tie  level- 
ler must  be  prepared.  No  -.ould  th.>  opposi- 
tion be  merely  that  of  class-interest.  Levelling, 
it  would  seem,  must  be  the  end  of  progress  for 
all.  It  would  be  at  once  the  end  of  trades 
which  supply  the  special  demands  of  the  mon- 
eyed class  and  of  the  livelihoods  of  the  artisans 
of  those  trades. 

Socialism  has  never  told  us  distinctly,  if  it 
has  tried  to  tell  us  at  all,  what  its  form  of  gov- 
ernment is  to  be.     Can  it  devise  a  government 
which  shall  hold  all  the  instruments  of  produc- 
tion, distribute  our  industrial  parts,   regulate 
our  remuneration,  yet  leave  us  free  ?     Without 
freedom  and  personal  choice  of  callings,  how 
could  there  be  progress,  how  could  there  be 
invention,  how  could  there  be  dedication  to 
intellectual  pursuits?     Can    the   government 
pick  out  inventors,  scientific  discoverers,  phi- 
losophers, men  of  letters,  artists,  set  them  to 
work    and    assign    them   their  rewards?     By 
what  standard  will  it  measure  remuneration  ? 
The  products  of  manual  labour  it  might  con- 
ceivably measure ;  but  apparently  those  alone. 
Nor  is  there  anything  to  show  us  plainly 


28 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


% 


that  the  revolution  would  be  made  universal  or 
that  unless  it  could  be  made  universal  it  would 
be  a  complete  success.  Suppose  one  or  two 
nations  were  to  hold  out  for  the  principle  of 
private  property,  declaring  themselves  the 
refuge  of  honest  earnings  and  savings  from 
confiscation;  is  it  not  possible  that  these 
nations  might  become  the  greatest  seats  of 
wealth  and  commercial  progress  in  the  world  ? 

There  is  no  use  in  applying  to  a  whole  class 
epithets  of  abuse  which  only  the  worst  mem- 
bers of  it  can  deserve.  There  is  no  use  in 
saying  that  any  set  of  men  have  been  "  stealing 
from  another  set  their  right  to  health,  home, 
and  happiness."  This  is  not  the  road  to  re- 
form, it  is  the  road  to  class-hatred,  which  indeed 
some  of  the  most  violent  Socialists  do  not  shrink 
from  avowing;  it  is  the  road  to  social  strife; 
it  is  the  road,  if  an  attempt  is  made  to  despoil 
and  destroy  a  powerful  class,  to  civil  war. 

The  inequality  of  wealth  is  aggravated  at 
present  both  in  its  economical  and  moral  aspect 
by  the  accumulation  of  enormous  fortunes. 
Unquestionably  this  is  an  evil.  But  may  it 
not  turn  out  a  transient  evil  attending  vast 


I'i 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


29 


speculations  in  great  works  and  enterprises,  in 
themselves  fruitful  of  good  to  the  world  at 
large  ?  Mr.  Brassey,  that  model  of  a  captain  of 
industry,  made  a  fortune  of  several  millions 
sterling ;  but  he  made  it  by  a  moderate  gain 
on  all  his  ventures,  and  by  the  extension  of 
the  means  of  international  communications  he 
conferred  a  great  benefit  in  more  ways  than 
one  upon  the  world.  The  evil  is  partly 
balanced  by  large  benefactions  to  public  insti- 
tutions. The  worst,  as  a  rule,  is  not  the 
millionnaire,  but  his  heir,  often  an  idle  sybarite, 
who  is  a  disgrace,  and  now,  when  the  rumblings 
of  social  earthquake  are  heard,  a  serious  danger, 
to  society. 

Proposals  to  forfeit  to  the  State  fortunes  im- 
morally made  require  for  their  safe  application 
an  infallible  test  of  morality.  The  attempt 
would  otherwise  result  in  sweeping  confiscation, 
which  perhaps  in  truth  is  what  some  of  its 
advocates  desire ;  and  the  end  would  be  general 
insecurity  of  property,  with  the  inevitable  con- 
sequences to  enterprise  and  production.  If 
gains  are  to  be  forfeited,  losses  must  be  made 
good,  or  investment  will  cease.    A  millionnaire, 


30 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


I 


I    • 


however,  if  he  has  a  social  conscience,  may 
hesitate  before  he  bequeaths  powers  of  great 
social  mischief  to  his  idle  and  profligate  son. 

As  to  the  brood  of  financial  brigands,  gener- 
ated in  an  age  of  the  greed  attending  vast 
speculations,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  public 
justice  is  on  their  track.  But  public  justice  to 
be  effectual  must  be  impartial.  There  will  be 
no  reform  if,  while  the  common  thief  goes  to 
jail,  the  thief  the  extent  of  whose  marauding 
and  whose  guilt  are  far  above  the  common,  can 
be  received  again  into  society  and  even  wel- 
comed back  to  his  seat  in  the  Senate. 

That  wealth  or  accumulated  wealth  is  in  it- 
self an  evil,  let  cynics  or  poets  say  what  they 
may,  will  hardly  be  said  by  any  one  who  asks 
himself  how  without  wealth  and  accumulated 
wealth  there  could  have  been  any  great  under- 
taking, it  might  almost  be  said,  beyond  mere 
self-sustenance,  any  undertaking  at  all. 

The  heirs  of  wealth,  on  the  other  hand,  if 
they  tender  their  own  safety  in  these  troublous 
times,  will  try  to  make  their  privileges  less  in- 
vidious, at  the  same  time  elevating  themselves 
and  enhancing  their  enjoyment,  as  they  would, 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


31 


by  mingling  with  the  cup  of  pleasure  some 
drops  at  least  of  social  duty.  Let  the  owner  of 
wealth  which  he  has  not  earned  count  it  wages 
for  service  due  from  him  to  the  community. 
He  will  find  happiness  in  so  doing. 

In  its  industrial  aspect  Socialism  apparently 
aims  at  casting  industry  in  a  new  mould,  substi- 
tuting cooperation  for  competition,  putting  an 
end  to  wage-earning,  making  over  all  the  instru- 
ments of  production  to  the  State  for  the  benefit 
of  those  who  are  now  the  wage-earners,  and 
according  to  one  version  of  the  doctrine  giving 
to  each  man,  not  according  to  his  work,  but 
according  to  his  needs. 

Under  such  a  system,  the  State  owning  all 
instruments  of  production,  instead  of  there  be- 
ing an  end  of  wage-earning,  all  the  world  would 
be  practically  wage-earners,  while  savin"  indis- 
pensable to  the  increase  of  production,  would 
apparently  cease. 

Let  our  industrial  Socialist  friends  figure 
to  themselves  and  explain  to  us  the  process  of 
taking  all  the  instruments  of  production,  which 
apparently  would  ir.clude  tools,  out  of  the 
hands  in  which  they  at  present  are  and  trans- 


3a 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


|i     I 


|l,    ' 


r( ' 


,'  I 


ferring  them  to  the  State.  Let  them  tell  us  at 
the  same  time  what  their  "State"  is,  how  it 
would  differ  from  a  government  more  despotic 
than  any  government  has  ever  been. 

In  the  employers,  organizers,  and  directors  of 
labour  in  its  various  spheres,  including  com- 
munication by  land  and  sea,  the  world  has  a 
skilled  staff  on  a  vast  scale.  When  all  the 
instruments  of  production  are  transferred,  si- 
multaneously, it  would  seem,  to  the  socialist 
organization,  how  would  that  staff  be  replaced  ? 

Competition,  of  which  the  ardent  Communist 
hopes  to  get  rid,  has  no  doubt  its  harsh  aspect, 
and  we  should  be  glad  to  change  it  for  universal 
cooperation.  But  it  has  been  hitherto  and  so 
far  as  we  can  see  is  likely  to  remain  the  indis- 
pensable spur.  After  all,  there  is  more  of  co- 
operation already  than  we  commonly  suppose. 
Let  the  Communist  take  any  manufactured 
article  and  trace  out,  as  far  as  thought  will  go, 
the  industries  which,  in  various  ways,  and  in 
different  parts  of  the  world,  have  contributed  to 
its  production,  including  the  making  of  machin- 
ery, ship-building,  and  all  the  employments  and 
branches  of  trade  ancillary  to  these;   let  him 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


33 


consider  how,  by  the  operation  of  economic  law, 
under  the  system  of  industrial  liberty,  the  price, 
it  may  be  a  single  penny,  is  distributed  justly 
among  all  these  industries,  and  then  let  him  ask 
himself  whether  his  government  or  his  group  of 
governments  is  likely  to  do  better  than  nature. 

Cooperative  stores  in  England  have  been  a 
splendid  success,  and  a  success  unalloyed  by 
strife  or  antagonism  of  any  kind,  so  that  they 
form  an  exceptionally  pleasant  incident  in  the 
chequered  course  of  industrial  evolution.  But 
they  are  founded  on  no  new  principle,  so  far 
as  economical  laws  are  concerned.  They  buy 
goods  and  hire  service  in  the  cheapest  and  best 
market,  recognizing  thereby  the  ordinary  prin- 
ciple of  competition. 

Something  of  a  socialistic  sentiment  perhaps 
enters  into  the  sudden  passion  for  objects  in 
themselves  not  novel  or  connected  with  social 
revolution,  such  as  public  ownership  of  public 
utilities:  railroads,  street  cars,  telegraphs,  and 
electric  powers.  These  cases  differ  i.ot  in 
principle  from  those  of  post-offices  or  water- 
works. To  extension  in  this  direction  there  is 
no  limit  of  principle.    The  only  limits  are  that 


34 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


ill  i 

! 

Ill]    I 


of  confidence  in  the  trustworthiness  of  the  gov- 
emments,  general  or  municipal,  and  that  of 
respect  for  the  rights  of  those  who  have  been 
allowed  to  invest  their  capital  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  law  and  disregard  of  whose 
rights  would  be  public  rapine.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary  here  to  go  into  the  question  of  municipal 
enterprise  or  to  present  the  financial  condition 
into  which,  by  the  prevailing  fashion,  British 
cities  have  been  led,  and  which  is  now  creating 
a  reaction  against  the  Progressist  party. 

We  have  had  some  more  limited  schemes  of 
magical  improvement  on  which  it  is  needless 
here  to  dwell.  One  reformer  proposed  to  turn 
all  private  holders  of  land,  even  those  who  have 
recently  purchased  from  the  State,  out  of  their 
freeholds  and  restore  the  title  of  nature;  a 
rather  alarming  undertaking,  considering  the 
chance  of  resistance,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
injustice ;  while  it  does  not  appear  by  whom 
the  land  is  thenceforth  to  be  reclaimed  and 
tilled.  Others  have  proposed  to  make  us 
rich  by  the  issue  of  an  unlimited  amount  of 
paper  currency,  which  they  take  for  money. 
They  fail  to  see  that  a  paper  dollar  is  not 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


35 


money  but  a  promissory  note,  payable  by  the 
bank  of  issue,  at  which,  when  the  note  changes 
hands,  gold  passes  from  the  credit  of  the  giver 
to  that  of  the  taker.  But  both  nationalization 
of  land  and  paper  currency  have  fallen  probably 
into  a  long  sleep. 

Mr.  Henry  George,  if  words  have  their  ordi- 
nary  meaning,  preached  abolition  of  private  pro- 
perty in  land  and  resumption  of  the  land  by 
the  State.*     His  disciples  have  come  down  to 
preaching  the  Single  Tax;  that  is,  throwing 
upon  the  land  the  whole  burden  of  taxation. 
The  equity  of  this  proposal  it  seems  difficult 
to  discern,  considering  that  of  all  kinds  of  pro- 
perty land  seems  least  to  require  the  protec- 
tion of  the  government  for  the  maintenance  of 
which  taxes  are  raised,  since  it  cannot,  like 
other  kinds  of  property,  be  stolen  or  destroyed. 
Does  equity  really  demand  that  a  cottage  with 
a  curtilage  should  pay,  while  a  palace  or  a  sky- 

» It  is  curious  that  any  doubt  about  Mr.  Henry  George's  theory 
should  have  been  expressed.  «  The  truth  is,  and  from  this  truth 
there  can  be  no  escape,  that  there  is  and  can  be  no  just  tiUe  to 
an  exclusive  possession  of  the  soil  ;  and  that  private  property  in 
land  is  a  bold,  bare,  enormous  wrong,  like  that  of  chattel  slar 
very."  —  Progress  and  Poverty,  Book  VII,  chapter  iii. 


"I 


30  LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 

scraper  escapes  ?    Or  is  equity  to  be  banished 
from  the  relations  between  the  tax-payer  and 
the  government?     The  advocates  of    Single 
Tax  seem  to  direct  their  attention  exclusively 
to  land  not  built  upon  in  cities,  whereas  the 
existence  of  such  land,  as  it  gives  a  breathing 
space,  besides  keeping  a  reserve  of  ground  for 
future  growth,  might  be  thought  rather  benefi- 
cial.    It  seems  likely,  however,  that  in  this  case 
motives  other  than  economical  may  bear  a  part. 
It  is  true  that  peculiar  responsibility  attaches 
to  large  property  in  land.     It  is  true  also  that 
very  large  estates,  such   as  those  which   in 
England  grew  out  of  the  confiscations  of  the 
Abbey  land  by  Henry  VIII  and  his  donations 
to  his  courtiers,  are  an  evil,  and  the  evil  is 
increased  if  the  same  man  holds  estates  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  country.     Entails  of  land 
also  are  an  evil.    Land-ownership  on  a  large 
scale  involves  duties,  and  the  large  land-owner 
who  merely  draws  rent  burdens  the  commu- 
nity.    But  larga  land-ownership  within  bounds 
is  not  necessarily  evil.     It  has  helped  improve- 
ment, as  did  the  estate  of  Coke  of  Norfolk  in 
England  and  that  of  the  Due  de  Rochefou- 


LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


37 


cauld  was  doing  in  France  when  it  was  over- 
taken by  the  storm  of  the  Revolution.  To 
improvement,  insecurity  of  tenure,  whether  pro- 
duced by  a  statutory  claim  of  the  State,  as  in 
New  Zealand,  or  from  any  other  cause,  caa 
hardly  fail  to  be  a  bar. 

What  we  all  want  of  the  land  is  that  it  shall 
produce  bread,  and  the  universal  experience  of 
the  world  has  pronounced  that  land  produces 
most  bread  when  private  ownership  speeds  the 
plough.  Tenancy  is  a  share  in  private  ownership 
under  the  same  legal  guarantee  as  free-hold. 

Human  society  m  its  general  structure  and 
features  appears  to  be  an  ordinance  of  nature, 
and  while  it  is  capable  of  gradual  improvement, 
far  beyond  our  present  ken,  not  capable  of 
sudden  and  violent  transformation. 

The  French  Revolution,  however  volcanic, 
was  not  socialist  or  communist  but  political.  It 
formally  recognized  private  property.  Its  polit- 
ical object  has  in  a  measure  been  gained,  though 
at  a  price  which  should  warn  us  against  hasty 
resort  to  violent  revolution.  The  other  element 
showed  its  character  in  the  terrible  Days  of 
June  and  the  more  terrible  war  of  the  Com- 


3> 


I.ABOUR  AND  CAPITAL 


«l 


mune.  The  relations  between  the  capitalist 
and  the  wage^rner  in  France  do  not  seem  to 
have  been  much  improved.  There  are  still 
strikes  and  sometimes  outbreaks  of  violence. 

It  would  seem,  then,  that  there  is  something 
to  be  said  for  acquiescing,  provisionally  at  least, 
in  our  industrial  system,  based  as  it  is  on  the 
general  relation   between  capital  and   labour, 
and  trying  to  continue  the   improvement  of 
that  relation  in  a  peaceful  way,  without  class 
war  and  havoc.     Progress,  in  a  word,  seems 
more    hopeful    than    revolution.     When    the 
socialist  ideal,  perfect  brotherhood,  is  realized, 
there  will  be  social  happiness  compared  with 
which  the  highest  pleasure  attainable  in  this 
world    of    inequality,   strife,   and    self-interest 
would  be  mean;  but  all  the  attempts  to  rush 
into  that  state  have  proved  failures,  some  of 
them  much  worse.     It  is  conceivable,  let  us 
hope  not  unlikely,  that  all  who  contribute  to 
progress  may  be  destined  in  some  way  to  share 
its  ultimate  fruits;  but  there  is  no  leaping  into 
the  millennium. 

Yours  faithfully, 


f 


^^Ci>C^      Jfttt^LT 


WO«n  ■¥  raoPBMOK 


OOLOWIN  miTM. 


THE  UNITED  STATES. 

*»  °"«^«  "f  »^«e.I  Htatoiy,  ,4,^„„. 
WH»  Map.   Cnwa  »v*.    ta.M. 

"  II  u  .  hunry  muttrpiec,  u  RuUbJa  u  •  n».l  »...  l  wi    ..     • 

duodtciino  pun  of  <nx.  .^  ,?7  "lumbui  lo  Grui  in  _, 

to  ..y  >h..  no  „„.  b.f„„  li7  LIk  ""  «■'»""'    ••  "  "ough 


ESSAYS  ON  QUESTIONS  OF  THE 
DAY: 

POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL 

By  QOLDWIN  SMITH,  D.C.L. 

NEW.  REVISED,  AND  ENIJ^RQED  EDITION. 

■mo.   Clotk.   ta.ag. 

-Hahu  Gailamd,  in  n,  Annm. 


THE  MAt-M!LLAN  COMPANY, 

eo  FIFTH  AVBNUH,  NEW  TOBK. 


WOKXt  BT  PROPBMOR  OOLDWIN  tlilTH. 


CANADA  AND  THE  CANADIAN 
QUESTION. 

with  Mip.   Dmy  8to.   Ctotk.   (a-M. 


fl 


THREE  ENGLISH  STATESMEN. 

A  Course  of  Lecture*  on  the  Political  History  of  England. 

IJBM.     tl.S». 

C»HlaUt. — Pym;   Crouwill;  Frt. 


Ul 


U, 


A  TRIP  TO  ENGLAND. 

New  AMs  RsnsiD  Edition. 
iSbo.   Cloth,  gilt  top.   75  coots. 

"So  delightful  a  cicerone  as  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith 
proves  himsHf  in  'A  Trip  to  England '  does  not  often 
fall  to  the  lot  of  the  non-personally  conducted.  .  .  . 
Meissonier-like  in  its  diminutiveness,  but  also  Meis- 
sonier-like  in  its  mastery."  —  Cri/ie. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY, 

ea  FIFTH  AVBNUa,  NBW  YOBK. 


J'i 


WORKS  BY  PROnsSOR  OOLDWIN  •HITH. 


SPEOMENS  OF  GREEK  TRAGEDY. 

a  voU.    i6nio.    Buckram,  gilt  top.    f  1.95  «*cb. 

Vol.  I.,  iEscHYLUs  and  Sopuoclbs  ;  Vol.  11^  EuuriOBS. 


BAY  LEAVES. 

Translations  from  the  Latin  Poets. 

161110.    Buckram,  gilt  top.    $1.35. 

"  It  has  been  given  to  but  few  to  approach,  and  to  none  in  our 
estimation  to  surpass,  the  delicate  perception  and  the  exquisite  grace 
with  which  Professor  Goldwin  Smith  has  served  uptthis  glorious  clas- 
sic feast  with  choicest  English  and  in  faultless  style."—  Tk*  Wt4k, 


OXFORD  AND  HER  COLLEGES: 

A  VIEW  FROM  RADCLIFFE  LIBRARY. 
By  QOLDWIN  SMITH,   D.C.L. 

With  manj  full-p.ge  illustiatioos. 
iSno.   Cloth,  gilt  to|>.   Si.go. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY, 

eo  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YOBK. 


|! 


umt 

*SHfih'' lllraii :  ■"  !■ 


«..:;;; 


PteiiiMiifci.,...,,: 


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